Sapient Capital LLC Decreases Holdings in NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE)

Sapient Capital LLC lowered its stake in shares of NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) by 3.5% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 14,246 shares of the footwear maker’s stock after selling 515 shares during the period. Sapient Capital LLC’s holdings in NIKE were worth $910,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of NKE. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of NIKE by 32.4% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 36,340,736 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $2,749,903,000 after acquiring an additional 8,898,591 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of NIKE by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,376,558 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $1,915,110,000 after purchasing an additional 347,178 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of NIKE by 10.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 24,545,937 shares of the footwear maker’s stock worth $1,857,389,000 after purchasing an additional 2,288,627 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in NIKE by 18.1% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 20,367,993 shares of the footwear maker’s stock valued at $1,541,246,000 after purchasing an additional 3,121,929 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in NIKE in the 4th quarter valued at $1,126,288,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on NKE. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of NIKE from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of NIKE from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on shares of NIKE from $84.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of NIKE from $72.00 to $70.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of NIKE in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $80.26.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NIKE news, Director Robert Holmes Swan purchased 8,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 4th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $58.46 per share, with a total value of $502,756.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 31,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,869,726.18. This represents a 36.78% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

NIKE Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE NKE opened at $62.81 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 2.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The business’s 50 day moving average is $59.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $68.85. NIKE, Inc. has a 52-week low of $52.28 and a 52-week high of $98.04. The firm has a market cap of $92.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.39, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.21.

NIKE (NYSE:NKE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The footwear maker reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.26. The business had revenue of $11.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.02 billion. NIKE had a return on equity of 36.99% and a net margin of 9.98%. The company’s revenue was down 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that NIKE, Inc. will post 2.05 EPS for the current year.

NIKE Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.55%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 2nd. NIKE’s dividend payout ratio is presently 53.16%.

About NIKE

NIKE, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, markets, and sells athletic footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories, and services worldwide. The company provides athletic and casual footwear, apparel, and accessories under the Jumpman trademark; and casual sneakers, apparel, and accessories under the Converse, Chuck Taylor, All Star, One Star, Star Chevron, and Jack Purcell trademarks.